KINGSLAYER

♕ 7 | 4 ♕

Their mother always chided Jaylah in instances like that for being too much to handle. Jaylah smiled a bit as she thought of it. She would likely be proud now that Jaylah was finally choosing to follow in her footsteps. If only she was not dead.

"Did you work for long under the last Queen?" Jaylah asked Antinoch as she hovered a gloved hand over a cluster of jasmine winding fully around a column.

"Not long." Antinoch smiled as a groundhog peeked out of its hole and promptly disappeared at the sound of her voice. "I never officially worked for her, I was merely trained by her aide, Rea. But due to my youth and our expectations that the Queen would live long, I was always meant to serve you instead, Your Majesty."

Rea. A brave woman. Knowing Jaylah's mother's life was in danger, she had fought back against Jaylah's father when he came to confront her mother that night. But she was no match for Aegeus Imperator's superior power. Her body laid among the dead.

"Well." Jaylah let her gaze slide over the plethora of flowers: blue delphiniums, purple hyacinths, crimson anemones, golden daffodils. "These gardens were her pride and joy. She even had several types of flora imported from Celanti."

"It is very tranquil compared to the chaos of the castle."

Jaylah agreed, although this place held a bit too much of her mother in it for her to be completely at ease within it. She kept believing she would see her admiring a cluster of particularly colorful flowers. Sometimes Jaylah forgot they were dead. It seemed as if it happened decades ago. Though Jaylah was so far removed from it, it might as well have.

The closed part of the garden was in its very center, protected by a circle of square-cut hedges. There was a small door that had to be unlocked by a key that the previous Queen was the sole owner of. Now Jaylah held it, turning it over and over in her palm. She had only been permitted inside there a handful of times, and even then, her mother kept careful watch over her.

"Sometimes, I walk these paths because I know she once did the same. It makes me feel as though we are still connected," Jaylah lied through my teeth. "I hope you will understand that I wish for privacy ahead."

She bowed her head, sharing Jaylah's grief. "Of course, Your Majesty. I will keep watch for trouble."

Did she mean Czar Ermalai? Occasionally, Jaylah caught sight of him walking about, deep in conversation with one of his guards. It was suspicious, but she could not gain any inside knowledge about it.

"I will return shortly."

Leaving Antinoch behind, Jaylah unlocked the wooden door and shut it behind her, hoping no one else watched too closely. Within the hedges' confines was hardly different from outside them. There were violets and primroses and tulips—all of her mother's favorites. And in the very center was a fountain that was filled with stagnant water. Green algae floated on the surface.

Rounding the planters, Jaylah searched for one in particular. It would stand out from her memories.

There. A small plant huddled close to the soil with pure white blossoms. A vivid recollection resurfaced at the sight of them.

"Mother, what are those?" Ourania asked, pointing.

"Those are peonies, dear."

"And these?" Ourania's hand went close to the white buds.

"No," their mother said suddenly, straightening. "Those are dangerous. You must not touch them with your bare skin. Just a few blossoms can kill a grown man if ingested or touched too long."

Ourania jumped back as though the flowers had personally threatened to kill her themselves. But Jaylah went closer and memorized the way the tiny petals curved so perfectly into each other.

She often wondered why her mother had not used the secret blossoms on her husband. On the late nights when Jaylah could not sleep, tossing and turning because of some harsh word her father uttered while training, she half-wished her mother would, shocking herself with the mere thought. Jaylah always immediately took it back just in case any Gods were listening. After all, if her father was gone, who would understand her?

It was likely because poisoning and killing her husband would directly disobey all the rules she instilled in her daughters as children. Good women did not do such heinous things. Good women gave soothing advice when harsh words were uttered to them, subtly attempting to compromise.

So Jaylah would compromise. She only picked two blossoms, which were not enough to kill. They were only enough to temporarily shut the body down into a partially paralyzed state. The recovery time would be weeks, if not months.

They would make the most wonderful addition to the overseer's tea tomorrow.

And once the effects set in, Jaylah could nominate another overseer of her choosing, one that was far kinder to the servants. It was much cleaner than murder, which was the last and most extreme option. Like her mother, Jaylah was a good woman.

The blossoms were so small in her gloved hands. It was always the least suspected things that were the most lethal. She pocketed them. When Jaylah locked the door shut, she saw that Antinoch remained loyally keeping watch as she said she would.

They began to recede back through the gardens together. Jaylah's thoughts went to her current most ardent purpose now that the business with Ermalai was stagnant. "I have a task for you, Antinoch. You have direct access to the census records for the last decade, correct?"

"I do, Your Majesty."

"Good. There is a pressing matter connected to my foreign affairs trip that has not been resolved. I have need of a man with information." They made the transition from grass to stone, heading back to the palace. "Find me the war slave named Alexander Khan and bring him to me."

"I will do it immediately, Your Majesty."

"And Antinoch?" She looked over at Jaylah, eager to please. "Do not tell anyone else of this job."